Hi all
A week ago I was crossing the Polish-German border in Goerlitz. I was surprised seeing on the German side some unusual uniforms. Apart of the well known Police, Border Police and ZOLL uniforms, there were few peoples dressed in blue shirts and very dark blue trousers, with the green armband labelled POLIZEI (yellow letters ? I'm not sure). The rank insignia worn by those people were in a form of the red bars on the shoulder straps. The one who's been checking my passport had one wide red bar on his shirt's shoulder strap and above it the other narrower with the gold emblem similar to the "grenade" of Austrian gendarmerie. Does anyone know what it was?

BTW, It would be nice to add at least few uniform examples (not only rank insignia) to this page - what's your opinion?

Hello,
recently I saw also such uniforms at the swiss-german zoll, and I was thinking at the beginning that they were soldiers and not policemen.
But when the man asked for my documents I noticed that they were policemen (I saw also the armband). I asked a german friend and he said that probably that was a summer uniform, but I don't think so. On my opinion these are new uniforms for "operative" customs police.

I think that for every country and for every corps it would be interesting to show at least 3 uniforms : troops, non commissioned officers and officers. Don't forget that many country show the rank insignia also on the cap. I think that they should be listed also...
rmboss

Actually, I know of distinctive military police only in the German Heer (Army)...But I doubt thoese men were part of the MP. In that case they would've worn standard camouflage uniforms with armbands reading either "FELDJÄGER" or "MP".And besides, guarding the borders like this is not part of the Bundeswehr's task.

Actually, the uniform described here is totally alien to me. I can only imagine that these officers were members of some foreign border guard or police currently on service in Germany.Projects like this have been going for some time as part of the European unification process.

Reserve Border Police Reserve Police (from border regions)

Groups like that don't exist. An even if they did - Border Police and regular Police (with the exeception of Hamburg's new uniforms) wear green, not blue.

The uniforms you've seen are rather curious, because I'don't see what country uses red bars and grenades ( since they are rather undoubtely members from a foreign country ). I thought at one time... France, because of the close cooperation protocoll signed in January between the "Douane" and the "Zoll" , its insignia is a hunting horn with a flaming grenade inscribed in it, the uniform is dark blue... But not any French uniformed service use red bars ( hevrons instead ), and the most remarkable insignia of a French Customs Official is... a red band on the trousers ( which are royal blue ), which you cannot miss...

according to a friend of mine, who is currently a police officer in training, the German Police will be introducing a new set of uniforms in the near future changing the color scheme from green-ocre to black or dark blue. Some of those uniforms are said to be in some kind of testing period right now. Maybe you saw some of these.

The uniforms you've seen are rather curious, because I'don't see what country uses red bars and grenades ( since they are rather undoubtely members from a foreign country ). I thought at one time... France, because of the close cooperation protocoll signed in January between the "Douane" and the "Zoll" , its insignia is a hunting horn with a flaming grenade inscribed in it, the uniform is dark blue... But not any French uniformed service use red bars ( hevrons instead ), and the most remarkable insignia of a French Customs Official is... a red band on the trousers ( which are royal blue ), which you cannot miss...

Could be... Switzerland ?!

Olivier

Not to my knowledge.
We don't have grenades nor any other icons on the pads, and the uniform is grey/green/red.

[quote="Zdzislaw Rudzki"]Hi all
A week ago I was crossing the Polish-German border in Goerlitz. I was surprised seeing on the German side some unusual uniforms. Apart of the well known Police, Border Police and ZOLL uniforms, there were few peoples dressed in blue shirts and very dark blue trousers, with the green armband labelled POLIZEI (yellow letters ? I'm not sure). The rank insignia worn by those people were in a form of the red bars on the shoulder straps. The one who's been checking my passport had one wide red bar on his shirt's shoulder strap and above it the other narrower with the gold emblem similar to the "grenade" of Austrian gendarmerie. Does anyone know what it was?

I´m very interested in what our Polish friend had seen . I know every kind of German uniforms - the new ones too . I think those uniforms our friend from Poland has seen had been surely been non - German uniforms, may be uniforms of an allied country . The green arm - band with "Polizei" (police in German) indicates, that´s not a German uniform, because all members of German police - forces are wearing arm - shield of their unites : For example police : heraldic sign of the country (states) and upon "POLIZEI" . Such green arm - bands our friend had seen are worn only by policemen or custom - officers in civilian - clothes to show that they are policemen etc. If a policeman of a foreign country is hospitating in Germany his uniform is normally unknown to German citizens . So he is wearing the green arm - band to indicate he is in German police service . That may be the explanation of that phenomenon .

Some remarks:
1. A lot of German Police Forces (Bundesländer and BGS) wil change from green to blue; Hamburg ist the first one which has changed.
2. In Germany it's not allowed that Military Police does Police duties.
3. Although the BGS will change the uniform colour from green to blue, you cannot see the new uniforms in the field, because the are in the planning phase.
4. The Police officers at the border with the strange uniform are police officers from othe EU member states. It's a EU programme to change police officers among each other for some weeks. The Officers you have seen at the polish border are probably Italian carabinieri or Italian state police.

A second remark from me, because this topic was posted under customs service:
The BGS (Bundesgrenzschutz) ist not a custom service - the BGS is one of the German federal police forces and this year it will be renamed into Bundespolizei.